


Welcome Home

by sanguinity



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Found Family, Gen, Hugs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-13
Updated: 2016-02-13
Packaged: 2018-05-20 00:41:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5986503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanguinity/pseuds/sanguinity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Every time Rey returns to base, General Leia Organa greets her with a hug.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Welcome Home

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Gelsey](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gelsey/gifts).



The first time Rey returned to the Resistance base, General Organa stood waiting for them at the bottom of the _Falcon's_ ramp. Narrow-eyed, the general watched the party descend together—Rey, Chewie, and the general's own brother—then she smiled softly and held out her arms.

To _Rey._

"Your...?" Rey began in confusion, looking to make sure that Luke Skywalker was still beside her, that he hadn't somehow managed to flee back to Ahch-To when she wasn't looking.

He hadn't. Luke looked back at Rey expectantly, amusement lightening his habitually grave features.

Rey looked back down the ramp, to where the general was still waiting for her. Organa, too, seemed bemused by Rey's hesitation. Rey walked forward and allowed the general to take her by the shoulders.

"You're all right?" General Organa asked as she searched Rey's face.

Rey nodded. She had made the promise to be all right, after all, before she left.

"Good," Organa said, touching her cheek. Then she folded the young woman into her arms. "Welcome home."

Rey felt a sudden prickling behind her eyes, and embraced the general back.

"And thank you for bringing my brother home to me," Organa said.

"It was an honor," Rey assured her. 

The general released her with her a nod, then looked up the ramp to her sibling.

"Well, it's about time," she challenged him, dry, and then Rey failed to hear the rest of their exchange, in the joy of being caught up and spun in Finn's wide-grinning embrace.

The next time Rey returned to base, after a multi-squadron mission against the First Order, General Organa came to the airfield to greet all the returning pilots. "You're all right?" she asked, again touching Rey's cheek, and nodded soberly at Rey's confirmation. "Good. Well done out there, and welcome home," she said, embracing her, then turned to greet the next pilot.

The third time Rey returned to base, she and Chewie had just finished a supply run — the _Falcon_ was first and foremost a freighter, after all — and no one but the groundies were there to greet them. Rey nodded firmly to herself, pushed back her feeling of disappointment, and went to find Finn. After all, it had just been a routine supply run, nothing that warranted a coming-home fanfare. But in the corridor, Rey passed General Organa in a walking-and-talking conference with her attachée, and the general glanced up. "Good run?" she asked, and Rey found herself the object of a brief hug. "Welcome home," Leia Organa added, touching Rey's shoulder as she turned away. And then the general was gone, barely having broken her stride, leaving Rey staring dumbfounded after her.

And so it continued. Every time Rey returned to base, the general greeted her with a hug and a _welcome home._ Sometimes General Organa would be there as Rey exited the _Falcon,_ the embrace long and heartfelt in the wake of some crushing disappointment, but more often, whenever they next met in the base, the general would glance up from what she was doing, meet Rey's eyes, and reach out to pull her into a nearly-perfunctory hug of greeting, before returning to whatever decision she had been making.

Two months later, Rey found herself deliberately detouring by the Command Center so that General Organa could see that she was back from their retrieval of an extraction team in the next star system. When Rey entered the room, the general, without looking up from her charts, held out a hand to beckon Rey over. Rey came and stood quietly among the small group of people waiting for the general's attention.

"Good trip?" Leia Organa asked Rey, after she had finally dismissed the officer she had been speaking to.

"Yes," Rey said, and moved in for the hug herself.

General Organa blinked, but a moment later she hugged Rey back. She embraced Rey tightly, more tightly than was usual here in the Command Center. Rey closed her eyes and let herself enjoy it.

"Good," the general said, pulling away. "I'll look for your report later. Welcome home," she smiled, and with a touch to Rey's arm, she turned to the colonel who had been waiting patiently for her attention.

And Rey went to find Finn, deciding that yes, even surrounded by all her command staff and an entire base of Resistance fighters, General Leia Organa had been waiting for Rey to come back.


End file.
